:)

Well, after waiting the entire week I finally got my path grade. My final for the course: 88.68. I was 0.32 points away from an A :( It was SO close.

So the rest of the week has been hell here...and by hell I mean really boring. I did nothing on tuesday, although I was supposed to be studying for clinical skills. I would start to study and then decide to do something else, like watch a movie, or take a nap. Wednesday's lab practical was funny because I arrived at my designated time slot and was assigned to a room only to find it was the same Doctor I had for my midterm....who happens to be very nice and fair. Then I walked down to the many pieces of paper face down with our practical exams and guess what I picked?? The same patient exam I picked for midterm. So, I told the Doctor I would do it again for her but I would really like to be tested on something else. So, I got to re-pick. So, I had to perform a respiratory exam, plus 2 minors....check for meningeal irritation and palpate the thyroid. My exam went really well, and I got an A. Then, I did nothing for the rest of Wednesday....studied a tad bit on thursday for the written. Took the written test yesterday and then.....

I saw a cricket game!!!!! Kate was nice enough to invite me to my first game and it was awesome....I had a great time. I watched Australia play the West Indies and it was really like watching a professional football team play a prison team. West Indies was okay....but Australia blew them out of the water. The only unfortunate part was I totally forgot sunscreen and I BURNED!!! My face, arms, knees.....so, i'm hurting a little today. I had a great sushi dinner last night and then went out with friends to Prickly Bay to celebrate. Had a few drinks...came home..slept for a few hours....brought Layne to the airport at 3:30am... hung out for a few hours....came home and went to bed.....got up at 9am...ate breakfast and here I am now!!

Today will be a fun and lazy day of packing and relaxing. If the sun comes out I may go down to the beach. Tomorrow I have laundry to do....some more packing....then, my fluffy butt gets on a plane at 5:30pm and I'm off to NYC!!! Can't wait to get home....play with my puppy....have some real sushi....and relax!

It's Over!!!!!

So, Pathology is now a distant memory. I officially finished the 3rd and last test at 12:08pm today. YAY!!!!! Overall, I thought the test was fairly easy and predictable. The questions were not 10th order like in previous tests. Also, the questions seemed to be alot more generalized...no testing of ridiculous details that none of us would remember in 10 minutes. I actually finised with almost 40 minutes left. And, since Pathology is the only class that will not allow you to leave the test early, I spent the rest of the time re-reading and looking over the questions on the one topic I had the least knowledge of....Male pathology!! How appropriate, right?? :)

Anyway, so....now I am just enjoying the moment of not having to study Path. Of course I have a stupid everlasting grin on my face. I think I will watch a movie now.....Baby Mamma is calling my name. And tomorrow morning, I get to spend the whole day cramming for my clinical skills practical. Everyone have a great day!!!

P DAY!!!

Today has arrived. The last Pathology final. :)

AHHHHH!!! Ready......set......

June 19th!!

Today is National Hurricane Awareness Day in Grenada. And I know this because of a neat little feature that is available to us here in Grenada. Something that I never had at home. Text messaging courtesy of your cell phone provider. Anytime there is a contest, or a chance to buy double the minutes for one low price, or a national event (like today) my phone makes its customary "I have a new text message awaiting your viewing" noise....and I look...and there is my message from Digicel updating me on the current news, events, and promotions. Verizon NEVER did that for me. So I guess being here has some nice perks to it.

In other news, I have been busy studying for the final Pathology test which will occur at 9 am sharp this monday. Am I prepared??? Well, I think I am. The better question is, am I prepared to answer insanely long, 10th order questions from professors who find it amusing to test us on disorders and diseases we will probably never see as physicians. Case in point.....we are constantly bombarded about this one disease called Goodpasture's which causes bloody urination and bloody cough/sputum (ask me about the pathogenesis on this one when I'm home because I know it!!). Anyway, today while I was trying to gain better insight into this disease through my search on wikipedia, I found out that Goodpasture's accounts for only 1% of ALL renal diseases. 1%!!! What?? The only doctor that will ever see this on maybe a yearly basis is a nephrologist and I know I won't be going into that field. But, we need to learn about it. Thanks Path for inundating my already swollen brain with useless material.

So, I had the opportunity tonight to try another Grenadian restaurant. We went to The Ocean Grill in St. George's. It was good. I just had a drink and appetizer....coconut shrimp and a pina colada. Yummy!!! Long story on how I ended up going out on a night when I should have been studying, but lets save that and just say that the food was very good and I definitely want to go back for lunch. If not this term, definitely next.

Well, plans for tomorrow are the following: Get up at 5:30am, make coffee and breakfast, drink coffee, wrap up breakfast, go to school, study, study, eat breakfast, study, study until 11am, workout for an hour, come home and eat lunch, shower and small nap, study, study, study, eat dinner, study, study, study, study, bedtime at 10:30pm.

Unless something really good happens this weekend (and you never know), my next post will be monday after the monstrousity. Have a great night. :)

Friday the 13th.....

Am I superstitious??? Absolutely not....because I have no time to be superstitious....I'm working hard studying for pathology. We just finished a week of Bone Path and Neuro Path and I just finished typing up my notes. Next week we get to hear lectures on Forensic Path and Skin Path. The forensics sounds fun and I am actually going to attend those lectures. The Skin packet has lots of pictures, so I may just attend those too (to see them in color).

So not too much to report here. This week has been really hectic. The nice thing is, I will be home really, really, REALLY soon!! I have been on this island for WAY TOO LONG!! And I desperately need a break. I have already been daydreaming about all the things I want to do. Go see a movie. Sushi. Chinese. Outback. Shop at Target. Shop at Walmart. Drive on the right side of the road. Of course, I can't eat too much because I need to maintain my new figure. But I can indulge a little :)

Since I don't have too much to talk about, I have decided to show you a picture of what I have to deal with here in Grenada:

These are the wonderful worms that just seem to appear out of nowhere. One minute they are not there....and the next....a worm. And these are not speed demon worms by any means. They are extremely sloooooow. So how do they suddenly appear in the middle of our dining room floor?? I have actually had the pleasure of finding out where they come from. One day, while sitting in my room....I catch something out of the corner of my eye and hear this very faint "thud" sound. I look over the side of my bed and see a worm (much like the one in the picture) that I know was not there 30 seconds before because I had just come in from getting a glass of water. These worms fall from the sky!!! No really...they do. I think they somehow make it up on to the roof, in through the rafters, crawl their way to a nice open space and drop down on to the floor. Nasty right??? I'm always nervous that one will land on me while I'm sleeping, so I make it a habit to check the ceiling every night before bed. I guess it could be worse....it could be a spider dropping down from the ceiling. I guess in the grand scheme of things I would much rather deal with quarter sized, slower than dirt worms, than quarter sized 8 furry legged spiders. :)

Bummed :(

My penguins lost to the red wings last night. It was inevitable considering Pittsburgh was a young team with little experience.....and Detroit has many experienced veterans and european players. I admit that Detroit really was the better team, but watch out for the Penguins in a couple of years when they are older and wiser!!

So today, karma came and bit me in the ***. Every monday for Path lecture we have a team based learning session where are lab groups assemble, we are given cases that we talk over, and then we spend about 45 minutes presenting them to the rest of the class. A few months back, no one in my group wanted to speak and kept insisting that I do it. I didn't feel like talking that day because I just wasn't in a very good mood. So, as our time approached I discreetly got up to "use the bathroom" and then conveniently returned when our turn was over. I know, that wasn't the nicest thing to do, but...my group was being mean to me that day. Well, today it came back to haunt me. This week, in addition to slides, we had 5 cases to do. Our group assigned the cases to correspond with the slides that we have to present. So on Tuesday, my slide was Adrenal Adenoma, and then I presented Case #2 on Cushing's syndrome. Then today, we learned that those cases were actually scheduled to be completed in lab today. They randomly picked 5 groups to come up to the front and present. And didn't our group get picked for Case #2, and wasn't that the case I presented on Tuesday...YES IT WAS!! So, my group MADE me go up and present the case. The only bad part was, I forgot what I had talked about on Tuesday ( I have been concentrating on studying Renal this week, and not cementing the details for Endocrine). But, I did okay (at least that is what my group mates said....although they are probably lying). There was one question from the professor that I was a little mixed up on, but Layne had gone up with me and she knew the answer. Overall, the moral is....Karma exists!!! So don't mess with it!!

In other news....I'm studying Endocrine tonight. In my attempt to still try for an A in Pathology, I once again have revamped my study style (this is the 3 time this semester for this class). I have decided to skip lectures, and spend that time making my notes and learning the concepts. Then, after reviewing everything, I am going back to listen to all the lectures online. The school records all of the lectures, although you can only hear the audio, no pictures. So far, this way seems to be working well for me. I'm not as confused as to what is going on during the lecture, and I feel I am able to pick up the little details that I usually miss when I'm actually sitting in class. We will see come test time if this method works.

Guess what Satuday is???? BELMONT!!!! Big Brown going for the Triple Crown. I think I will head over to school around 5pm to see history. Although, I shouldn't say that because I may jinx it. But I am rooting for Big Brown to win, and looking at the odds, so is everyone else.

Forgot to mention that Tuesday was Kaushik's b-day. Layne, Allison, and myself made him brownies (he's a choco-holic), went over to his apartment, and hung out for an hour. Of course, Kaushik's roommate Richard made a cake, so not only did I have a brownie, but that as well. Which meant that today, I had to run extra hard and long. 1 hour and 8 minutes. My knees are screaming!! But its okay, because I am deteremined to reach my final destination weight of 128 before I leave this island.

Well, enough about me....how are all of you doing??? I can't wait to be home in 3 1/2 weeks to find out. See you all soon!!! :)